Criminal Law Blog
March 02, 2005
Austin DWI Lawyer Talks About Listening to Clients.
Not long ago a young guy called me up and asked, “How much do you charge for a DWI case?”
I like to visit with callers who start with that question, because different types of DWIs have different prices. For a first-time DWI, I would never charge what I charge for a state jail felony or third-degree felony DWI. My client’s risk on a first-time misdemeanor DWI is a lot less than it would be on a state jail felony or third-degree felony DWI, and my fee for the first time DWI case should be less.
So when he asked me what I charge, I said, “Tell me a little bit about what happened.”
He explained that he had roughly five drinks of hard liquor and at least five, perhaps more, beers.
I asked, “Did you blow?”
“Yeah.”
“What was the result?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Why?”
I explained that under Texas law, there are two definitions for “intoxicated.” One is more objective, having to do with the amount of alcohol in your bloodstream. The other is more subjective, having to do with whether you had lost the use of any single mental or physical faculty.
He said he wasn’t positive, but he was fairly sure that his blood alcohol content was higher than the legal limit.
The more we talked, the more he relaxed. Pretty soon, he said that didn’t want to “serve any more jail time.” He also said he didn’t want to “take probation.”
As I listened, I thought I should repeat what I had heard and make sure that I had understood him correctly and I said that to him.
I said, “Let me make sure I’ve got it straight. You aren’t positive, but you think it’s very likely that when you blew into the breath machine, you probably blew .08% or more.”
“Right,” he said.
“And you don’t want to serve any jail time.”
“That’s right,” he said.
“And you don’t want to take any probation.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” he said.
And so I waited for just a moment longer. He started to laugh. “Oh, I get it. How am I going to avoid serving any time and not get probation if the breath test comes back over the limit?”
“That will make my job a little harder. Not impossible, but harder.”
The longer he talked and the more he disclosed, it was plain that the maximum he was willing to spend was less than half of the lowest fee I’ve ever charged for a DWI case. And, on top of that, he said he didn’t have a job. And so I told him that and he said “OK.” And then he added “you’re not talking like any of these other lawyers.”
“How is that?”
“Because all the other lawyers I’ve talked to haven’t really gone into it all in any detail with me. When I asked them what their price was, all they would say was, “You got to come into my office and we’ll talk about it.”
At the end of conversation we were both winners. He and I both didn’t spend an hour in my office talking about his case when he couldn’t afford my services.
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